Kon-Tiki is the real life story of a Norwegian adventurer
named Thor Heyerdahl who in 1947 was hell bent on undertaking an expedition
across the Pacific Ocean. But this wasn’t just any old expedition Heyerdahl
wanted to put together, nope, Heyerdahl wanted to go on a wood raft across the Pacific
Ocean. He wanted the raft to be constructed with the materials that people had
in the past, nothing modern, just basil wood and rope. He wanted to prove that in
the past, man could have traveled long distances on rafts made of wood. Heyerdahl
wanted to prove that these long treks could have taken place and that technological
limitations didn’t stop people of the past from achieving these journeys. Basically,
he was kind of like a Jacques Cousteau, the famous biologist/adventurer;
actually, Cousteau and Heyerdahl were contemporaries. I admire guys like these,
I mean; they give up a normal life to live extraordinary ones. Their lives were
filled with real life adventure; which is probably why the tagline for this
movie is “Real Adventure Has No Limits”.

So yeah, this is one of those “based on real life events”
type of films, even though from looking at the trailers, you might get the idea
that it’s some sort of fantasy. And speaking of fantasy, the film has some
similarities with a couple of movies out there, but the most blaringly obvious
one is Life of Pi (2012). Both films are about people traveling on a raft
through the perilous, unpredictable ocean. On both films the travelers meet
beautiful marine life, gigantic whales, sharks, glowing sea creatures, flying
fish. Both films also explore the validity of faith, of believing in what we
can’t see. While Life of Pi preaches about the Christian concept of God,
Kon-Tiki has a character fiercely believing in ‘Tiki’, a Polynesian God. At one
point this belief in ‘Tiki’ is questioned when a character tells Heyerdahl “nobody
believes in your Tiki story” to which Heyerdahl replies “Then why are you here?”
So Kon-Tiki has various levels of
similarity with Life of Pi, the difference is that while Life of Pi is more of
a fantasy film, Kon-Tiki happened for real. These crazy guys really did take
this journey through the Pacific on a raft they built themselves. The film also
had some similarities with a film I love very much called Joe Versus theVolcano (1990), a film in which Tom Hanks also embarks on a journey through the
ocean on a small raft. Joe Versus the Volcano is a film that gets quite existential,
it also touches upon the idea of god. At one point Joe actually looks up at the
heavens, talking to a God whose name he does not know and thanking whoever that
being might be. What is it with films about people taking perilous journeys on rafts
and the theme of God? It might have something to do with pitting man vs. nature;
nature on these films being the closest thing to God an idea that pops up in
all three of these films, the idea that nature and life are so grand that they
are worthy of our worship.

In Kon-Tiki, the part of the story that amazed me the most
is the one about these guys building this raft all on their own and deciding to
just do it. I mean, this took guts because they wanted to make the journey sans
anything modern, save for a radio to communicate with in case of emergencies. Heyerdahl
even tried looking for funding through National Geographic magazine, a help
which the magazine denied because Heyerdahl’s journey seemed downright suicidal
to them. Which made sense to me in a way, I mean, when the journey begins, you
feel as if these guys are so green, they really don’t know much about traveling
through the ocean, much less on a wood raft. You kind of get the feeling that
the sea is going to give them a good whoopin’. But what they lacked in
experience, they made up with sheer adventurous spirit. And a grand adventure
it was, the film portrays all their adventures, their fights with sharks,
whales, the weather and themselves. Those scenes where the men interact with
nature bring up some of the most spectacular moments in the film, my favorite
being their encounter with a whale, such an awesome scene. It reminded me a bit
of that elusive mythical fish in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve
Zissou (2004), yet another film about a group of adventurous men in the sea.

Thor Hayerdahl wrote about his experiences and printed them
in a book called The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft across the South Seas. He
also took Cousteau’s example and filmed the whole expedition with hopes of
turning the footage into a documentary, which ended becoming a documentary called
Kon-Tiki (1950). By the way, that documentary won an Oscar in 1951! Heyerdahl
continued doing expeditions after this one, there’s actually a whole museum
dedicated to all of his journeys where you can see all the different rafts he
made for these different journeys. The guy dedicated himself to a life of
adventure and exploration, so much so that he sacrificed his family life and
this is something that the movie addresses a bit, how his journeys destroyed
his marriage. This is a concept that’s been played out in films about people
who are so devoted to achieving a certain goal, that they opt to sacrifice
everything, marriage, love and even family life. These are people that feel
that what they are doing is bigger than themselves, so they pay the price. At
the end of the day I thought the film was very motivational, it also reminded
me of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo (1982), yet another film about a determined
dude in a boat going against all odds. Final words on this film is that even
though it is a really beautiful film to look at and one with some amazing
moments in it, it needed maybe a little more conflict, a little more intensity
in its plot; but aside from that, I personally really dug this movie. The Norwegian directors of this film, Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg did such a swell job with this movie that they are now directing the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film, looking forward to that, it will be interesting to see what kind of feel they can add to that franchise. Bottom line is, if you
love nature, need to be inspired and have an adventurous spirit, this one comes
highly recommended.

Sorry, but I disagree entirely anonymous, this movie is entertaining,it has a lot to say and it was even nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for best foreign film, the first time this has happened with a Norwegian film. I think maybe you should give it a chance.